Posts Tagged ‘village’

Wars and wealth inequality are both social constructs. They exist and persist because we are used to them. We accept them as normal, and can even believe them to be everlasting – an extension of the animal nature of humanity’s greed and violence.

But every single human on earth would be better off if they didn’t have to worry about war or have to contribute to the billions spent every year on armed conflict. And almost every single person on this planet would be experience a higher quality of life if humankind’s wealth were distributed more equitably.

So it’s not a matter of peace and prosperity being an impossibility – because once we have those things we will only wonder why we waited so long to make them happen. Instead, it’s a matter of getting from our old world and our old-world mindset into the new future that awaits.

We will see that wars are being manufactured by for-profit entities and we can stop them as soon as we choose to. We will see that wealth disparity persists because we haven’t yet done anything about it. We will see that we’ve had the power to fix our world all along, and that all it took is for enough of us to coordinate and mobilize on a global scale.

And there is no better tool for this than the Internet. Our glorious Internet, as long as it remains free from censorship and government overreach, will keep connecting and informing us. Within the coming few years, enough of us see and believe that change is not only possible, it is inevitable. And as we speak out in unison with the power of billions of people, our dreams of peace and ending poverty will be real.

Alan Strachan put up a nice piece over at Common Dreams, summoning his fellow citizens to move from trance to moral outrage, as the powers that be continually strip wealth and freedom from the population.

The Mega-Rich have declared war against ordinary Americans:

Although current circumstances have not been labeled as such, we are in another Civil War. This time it is not the North against the South. This time it is the Mega-Rich against ordinary Americans.

It is the Mega-Rich who have declared and are waging this war. To do so they have bought politicians from both political parties, in order to change laws and regulations, so that they are free to do as they wish. And what they wish is to make as much money as possible and to increase their power in every way possible, even when that means sending ordinary Americans into poverty, destroying the environment, and gutting democracy. They will stop at nothing, and they take no responsibility for the terrible consequences of their greed.

Make no mistake about it: the Mega-Rich have been getting what they want, and the US government has been enabling them to do so…. Now it is inescapably clear that Democrats as well as Republicans are firmly entrenched in policies that undermine democracy and line the pockets of the Mega-Rich and their corporations.

Strachan concludes that it is time for regular people to rise up and reclaim power:

To passively wait for someone to save us – hoping for a political leader who speaks about and acts upon [our values] — is naïve and ineffectual. We, the People – you, and I – have the power to lead. We must lead our leaders, and show them the way. It is up to us to restore democracy.

When the wealthy and powerful go too far – as they always will if we allow them to – it is up to the People to restore the moral order, to restore democracy. It is up to us to remind our “leaders” – who are supposed to be “public servants,” not corporate lackeys – that “democracy” is People power. Not Mega-Rich power, but People power.

Strachan’s sentiments are shared by many, myself included. I first recognized the power of unity to balance the world’s inequalities at least six years ago, as the many benefits of solidarity amongst humanity were highlighted in the “Global Unity” section of my first book (which is available online). Here’s a sample:

Everyone stands to gain from a united world. A world of peace means we live with less fear and a higher quality of life. Global unity will also help to secure our children’s future and the survival of our species.

Not only will global unity benefit everyone directly, it represents an opportunity to do something that has never before been done on earth – we could unite on a global scale. Global unity will be an accomplishment we can all be proud of.

In a world where nations cooperate, we will no longer have to fear foreign invasion or nuclear annihilation. With global unity, we also get the personal security that comes from knowing that if either ourselves or a loved one becomes sick or injured, the world is more able to help.

Another benefit of global unity will be an increase to nearly everyone’s economic situation – which means more money! We will be able to take control of our world’s wealth and divert the profits of humanity’s labour into social services, like health care and education, which are investments into our future.

The first surplus of wealth comes from the trillions of dollars spent on military budgets. With no one left to fight, the world’s war machine can be dismantled, which is something everyone should want, if not for themselves, then for their family.

Over the past decade, our world has come together more than throughout the rest of human history combined. 10 short years, and we’re more interconnect than ever before! Now, just imagine how tight-knit we’ll all be in just a few more years, once more people get connected and become engaged netizens.

This transformation will be incredible! When humans work together, there’s nothing we can’t do. And when we work together on a global scale, well, it puts amazing things – like creating world peace and ending starvation – squarely within our reach.

Only a few years old, these two technologies have already increased humankind’s social cohesion to unprecedented levels. Now just imagine where we’ll be in a few years time, as millions more come online to become Netizens.

There will be hundreds of millions of minds, all working in-tune, all processing information from the rest of the world as it happens. The self-awareness we’ll experience as a species will be incredible!

With such an encompassing eye into our world, some important truths will become known to enough people to really make a difference.

To start, we’ll see how the vast majority of humans, no matter where they come from or what they believe, can actually co-exist peacefully with almost everyone else.

As well, we’ll learn how powerful we can be when we work together. The force of millions of individuals working in unison can readily overthrow corrupt rulers and counterbalance even the world’s most influential institutions.

Ultimately, we’ll awaken to the reality that a better world is well within our reach. Amazing things, like eradicating extreme poverty and ending institutionalized armed conflict, won’t seem so impossible to achieve the more we work together on the global scale.

Technology is bringing us together like never before, and we’re harnessing this new empowerment to manifest a world with less and less injustice. What an amazing time to be alive!

As we move forward into a new age of world peace, where cooperation takes precedence over conflict, a small yet significant change will take place in the psyches of many people on earth. This change will be in our own personal identity… in the way that we perceive our role in the world.

Being part of One World, the Global Tribe, the World’s Community, means we’ve undergone an expansion to our own identity. We now view our selves as members of the Global Village. We see ourselves as part of the human species, one with all others sharing this giant ball of matter as it hurls through space.

As we grow to accept this global paradigm, being one of the world’s people becomes one more notch in our own personal identity. Along with all the other ways we may identify ourselves – our music taste, our hobbies, our sports interests or favorite sports teams, our heritage, our nationality, our fashion style, our occupation, our education – we also recognize the fact that we are human from planet earth.

While it is just a small step, just one more way of looking at ourselves, it has huge ramifications for our world. As we expand our identity to include being a member of the global village, something remarkable happens: every other human on earth inherently becomes, on some level, part of our own group, part of our own extended family, part of us. So, these people who were once strangers, who were once part of the “Out-group”, part of “them”, “they”, “the outsiders”, now shifts to be part of the “in-group”, part of “us”, “we”, our side.

Now, this doesn’t mean we need to immediately sacrifice ourselves for our new extended family, or really change our behavior dramatically. But what does happen is that number of outside threats, the number of enemies in the world, suddenly drops dramatically. The world isn’t so scary, anymore, as our common humanity reveals itself.

This way, we can move forward into a new age, building trust, building channels of communication, building stronger and larger communities… all of which will be instrumental in the formation of a world of peace.